The global economy has erased arbitrary boundaries between cultures. On a daily basis, we interact with the world in both large and small ways. We call phone banks in India, e-mail on-line businesses in England, drink fair-trade coffee from Columbia, read about micro-lending in Africa, and shop for green toys made in Thailand. But what about literature? Does the country define the writer or does the writer define the country? Or can literature take place in a global vacuum, devoid of setting? Join us as we wade in the literary waters of many cultures and sample some of the best of the best, one book at a time.